The Trilisk AI by Michael McCloskey

Author:Michael McCloskey [McCloskey, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 1478149485
Publisher: Squidlord LLC
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“So I hate to be blunt, but is our employment about to terminate?” asked Cilreth. “I won’t be able to find Telisa as long as she’s hiding behind the F-clave. And we’re not going to get in there, not without a small army. Even your stealth suit would only get you so far, I suspect.”

I didn’t get to be a captain in the force by giving up. “Let’s consider it a bit further before throwing in the towel,” Relachik said. “What do we have? Some inside info about a deadly compound on Halthia Hyri that may have an expiration date on it. A stealth suit. A spacecraft. A couple of grunts and a savvy investigator.”

“We could hit the F-clave with a meteorite,” Arlin suggested.

“To what end?” asked Cilreth.

“If we destroy the F-clave’s complex, it might shut them down for a while. It might flush Telisa out.”

“That’s good thinking,” Relachik said. “What else can we come up with?”

“We could bribe someone else with access. They are, after all, greedy criminals,” Cilreth said.

“Criminals? Kind of. Here on the frontier, just call them entrepreneurs,” Arlin said.

“That may work. It would be hard, though,” Relachik said. “We’re complete strangers and haven’t worked with them before. And the F-clave is notoriously brutal with traitors. Kill your whole family, that kind of shit.”

“Then we can finger someone who’s worked with them before. Get them to purchase the information we want.”

Relachik sighed. “I don’t want to go spending months hanging out with lowlifes and building up a criminal record of our own just so we can find the right guy and buy our way in. Besides, I have a large sum of money, but it’s finite.”

“I get the feeling you have an alternative of your own.”

“I may,” Relachik said. “I just wanted to feel out some other ideas. Keep thinking on it, send me other approaches if you have them. I’m going to work on my idea and see if I can get it to work. If not, then we’re back to meteorites and lowlifes.”

Relachik walked back to his quarters. He knew he was going to contact someone in the Space Force, but the question was who and how. He thought of his secret contact, Nick. He might be able to get something done that way, but he didn’t want to burn that particular bridge. This was going to require deception. Once they found out he had lied, whoever he chose might not listen again. Nick could remain a source of information, as long as he handled the relationship correctly.

“No, I think I’ll go aboveboard with this one,” he told himself. Even an ex-captain dropped for incompetence would be able to get more attention than a random citizen.

After all, he thought, the days of my open credit with the force are over. I should burn the remainder of that up first, and keep my surreptitious connections alive.

Relachik finished making his decision. He used his link to contact Commander Gaines. The other side accepted the connection immediately.

“Relachik. Wow.

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